It Happened in Hillsborough: South Branch

Hillsborough became serious about preserving its past around the time of the township’s bicentennial in
1971. Some of the ways it did this were by enacting a historic preservation ordinance, adding a Historic
Preservation Plan Element to the Master Plan, and creating historic districts. There are six historic
districts registered at the state and national level: South Branch (1977), Neshanic Mills (1978), Neshanic
(1979), Millstone Valley Agricultural (1979), Clover Hill (1980), and Millstone River Road (1991). In this
column, we’ll take a look at one of these every couple of months throughout the year.

South Branch

The South Branch Historic District, centered on River Road from south of Orchard Drive to north of the
Studdiford Bridge, is one of Hillsborough’s best-preserved 19th-century villages. At the time it was
entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, there were more than twenty contributing
structures in the district.

The area was first settled in the early to mid-1700s when a mill was erected to take advantage of the
water power along the South Branch of the Raritan River. The Dutch Reformed Church of Branchville
(now called the South Branch Reformed Church) was built in 1850, leading to the village being known as
Branchville for a time.

By the third quarter of the 19th century, in addition to the church and mill, the village also had two
blacksmith shops, a wheelwright shop, two stores, and most notably, a covered bridge constructed in
1830. The village schoolhouse, still standing today, was just across the river in Branchburg. In the early
1900s, there was a summer resort hotel called Pine Terrace just to the right of the church.
In 1976, Hillsborough residents, fearing that a proposed reservoir at the confluence of the North and
South branches of the Raritan would drastically alter the village, successfully applied for South Branch to
be entered onto New Jersey’s Historic Register.

South Branch became Hillsborough’s first historic district, and 60 years later, thanks to the residents'
continued pride in their village, it retains much of its historic character.

Gregory Gillette has been writing about local history for 20 years, starting with his Courier News column
“Gillette on Hillsborough” and continuing today with a Facebook page of the same name. A recipient of
the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission History Award for Education/Leadership in
2018, he was named as Hillsborough’s first Local Historian in 2025.